Take It From The Top
by who tf knows
Summary: Adrien didn't think that the ring he picked up off the street would be that much of a big deal but no - he's followed around by something that vaguely looks like a cat, the entirety of Paris is threatened by a guy named Hawkmoth, Adrien somehow turns into a superhero - with a strange name to boot - and meets someone called Ladybug, all in the span of an afternoon.


**Heyo!**

 **So I didn't have a prompt for this one (I'm sorry, I will get round to writing all of them I promise) but I just love origin stories.**

 **Summary: Adrien didn't think that the ring he picked up off the street would be that much of a big deal but no - he's followed around by something that vaguely looks like a cat, the entirety of Paris is threatened by a guy named Hawkmoth, Adrien somehow turns into a superhero - with a strange name to boot - and meets someone called Ladybug, who sounds about as equally threatening as Chat Noir does.**

 **Pairing(s): Pre-Chat Noir x Ladybug**

 **Words: 3751**

 **Warnings: not edited and OOC (you know the drill)**

 **Disclaimer: Is my name Zagtoon? No? Wow what a surprise.**

 **Thank you to Darkscaleswriter on tumblr for the idea for the villain ^_^**

 **Enjoy!**

—

"Stop following me," Adrien glared at the tiny black… vaguely-cat-shaped thing that had been whizzing around him for the past three days.

"Ah but I can't do that until you listen to me," the vaguely-cat-shaped thing contradicted.

Adrien whirled around. "My dad thinks I've become deluded for talking to myself and you're really not helping whenever I have to do homework," he exclaimed, ignoring the strange looks he got from passersby on the street at the outburst.

"But you have the ring."

 _The ring._

The tiny piece of jewellery that he hand absent-mindedly picked up off the road and placed it onto his finger, only to discover that the stupid _wouldn't come off._

And the vaguely-cat-shaped thing had now decided to make his life one big, messy spiral of irritation because _you have the ring_ and _hey you got any cheese?_ and _I don't know why it chose you when you won't even listen to me!_

"One day," Adrien murmured from the corner of his mouth, "you leave me alone until I get home from school and I'll listen to whatever absurd thing you have to say about the stupid ring."

Vaguely-Cat-Shaped paused for a moment, before nodding and flying off in the direction of his house - probably to consume all the cheese he could find in the fridge.

Adrien's theory was that if he didn't see the strange, incessant hallucination for long enough it would just go away. He didn't even know how his imagination could come up with something so… _weird_ and… _annoying_ like, what was he trying to do to himself? Was it something he ate?

Sighing, the blonde model walked until he came across the red-brick building where he would - hopefully - spend the rest of the day tiny-black-annoyance free.

"Yo dude," Nino greeted, holding out his fist, "you look beat."

"I am," Adrien agreed sullenly, reciprocating the gesture.

The bell rang - as obnoxiously loud as usual - and Nino grabbed his arm and ran down the hallway, explaining that, since it was the beginning of the term, they had the chance to choose their seats and goddammit they were going to sit where they could _see_ this time.

Giggling and rolling his eyes half-heartedly at his friend's antics, Adrien allowed himself to be dragged along, enjoying how something as simple as finding good seats - something as wonderfully, amazingly normal as finding good seats - could almost make him forget about his hallucination, or his father, or his schedule.

"Front row!" Nino called, sitting down and placing his bag in the floor next to him.

"You do know you can slack off and start doodling and stuff now, right?" Adrien informed him, smirking as he took the adjacent seat.

Nino cursed and leant back to look at the row behind them. "You think it's too late to switch?" he asked, just as Marinette and Alya sat down in said row.

"I think it just might be," Alya laughed, flicking Nino's forehead playfully.

Adrien flashed a smile at Marinette, who jumped as a red flush spread across her cheeks and she smiled back timidly, sinking down into the chair.

Huh. Must be shy.

The teacher walked into the room briskly, setting her various papers down on the desk. "Welcome back class, I'm sure you're all very happy to be here," the class groaned in response, making her chuckle, "I know, I know, I'm going to hand out the study outline for this term, so take one and pass them back."

She passed half the sheets to Adrian, and half the sheets to the other front line. Just as he was about to hand the papers to Nino, the projector flickered on of it's own accord.

An image of a man with a grey mask covering his face showed up on the screen.

" _People of Paris,"_ he begun threateningly, _"I am Hawkmoth. Give back my Miraculous and no one gets hurt. You have one hour."_

"What the hell is he talking about?" Alya exclaimed, "is he calling himself miraculous? Is he on some kind of magical quest to find the amazing Miraculous? For a guy who wants his stuff back, he didn't give us much to go on."

Marinette giggled at her friend's outburst.

"She's got a point, you know," Nino hummed, "and what was with that mask? I was all shiny and it had lines on it."

Adrien stayed quiet.

Something about that name… _Miraculous_ _…_ he had heard it somewhere, he was sure of it.

"A-alright class," the teacher called, clapping her hands to get everyone's attention, "let's get back to the outline, alright?"

As time went on, the class grew increasingly nervous - when he said _you have one hour,_ what did he mean to do once it was up?

Fifty-nine minutes past, and there was no word from 'Hawkmoth.' Adrien was starting to breathe easy again. After all, what kind of name was _Hawkmoth?_ Insects as a whole didn't sound very threatening.

The projector flickered to life again.

"It seems like you've failed to comply," he told them, and Adrien wasn't surprised, "very well."

It turned off.

"So… what, is he just gonna leave?" Alya asked, "why didn't he try to tell us how miraculous he is?"

" _Say you need to go to the bathroom,"_ something hissed from his bag. Adrien looked down in shock to find Vaguely-Cat-Shaped hiding amongst his books.

"You!"

"Say you need to go to the bathroom," it told him again.

Adrien rolled his eyes and stuck his hand in the air. "Miss, can I please go to the bathroom?" he asked.

"Honestly Adrien, class just started, but okay."

He glared down at Vaguely-Cat-Shaped quickly before exiting the room and walking towards the bathrooms.

"No you idiot, don't _actually_ go to the bathroom!" Vaguely-Cat-Shaped scolded by his ear.

Adrien whirled around. "That's what you told me to do!" he rebutted, making sure to keep his voice down.

"No, I told you to _say_ you had to go to the bathroom," it corrected him, "what we're _actually_ doing is going outside."

"You want me to cut class?"

"It's for a good cause!"

" _What good cause?!"_

Then the heard it.

 _Thump… Thump… Thump…_

It was like something was getting closer to the school. The sound shook the floorboards and resonated through the hallway.

"Okay, what the hell was that?" he asked.

Vaguely-Cat-Shaped stared at him, almost like he was bored.

"The good cause."

With that, he flew off towards the front doors, leaving Adrien to try and catch up. Throwing open the double doors, he couldn't help but gape in horror.

There was a girl flying fifteen metres of the ground.

She was wearing a green dress, various ruffles and objects that gleamed in the sun stuck haphazardly to the sides. Her white boots were pristine and in her hand was a gnarled sceptre, topped by a glowing purple stone.

She looked down at him - how she even saw him, he had no idea - and Adrien noticed two horns protruding from her forehead.

Blonde hair whipping wildly around her, the girl ignored him and stepped closer to the school building.

 _Stepped._ She just _stepped_ on fifteen metres of air.

Adrien's brain was going into overdrive, like it couldn't keep up with what his eyes were seeing because _there's a girl walking on air and she has horns and- wait, what the_ hell _was that?_

Brushing away Vaguely-Cat-Shaped, who was tugging on his ear, Adrien stared, open-mouthed at the creature looming towards him.

It looked like it could have been a dog once - pointed ears, sleek coat and elongated snout, most of the features one would associate with a dog, except the fact that it was _ten metres tall._

And it had wings.

Did he forget to mention that?

"They didn't _believe_ me, huh?" he heard the girl growl, "they all thought it was _funny,_ but look! Right in front of your eyes! A fantastical creature!"

" _Adrien!"_ Vaguely-Cat-Shaped hissed, giving up on trying to pull him.

"Mmm?" he hummed distractedly, eyes still fixed on the strange girl in awe.

A fly buzzed around her and she whacked it away with her staff. The poor, unsuspecting insect dropped to the ground.

Suddenly, a - really quite small - dragon popped up where the fly had landed. It snorted, shook its red-scaled head and flew up to land on the girl's shoulder, imitating some kind of weird parrot.

 _What. The. Hell._

"Snap out of it and follow me!" he heard an urgent voice next to him, the tugging on his ear came back but this time, Adrien followed it blindly, mind reeling.

"But it- then she- and the fly… the dog had… wings?" he blabbered, trying desperately to make sense of the situation.

"I know!"

The painful pressure stopped as they rounded a corner.

"Now, I want you to repeat after me," Vaguely-Cat-Shaped instructed, _"_ _transform: Chat Noir._ _"_

Adrien stared at the floating black shape in disbelief. "You want me to do _what?_ _"_ he asked incredulously.

"Just do it!"

"Transform: Chat Noir!"

Then something very, _very_ weird happened. Vaguely-Cat-Shaped was sucked into the white ring on his finger and the colourless metal was dyed jet black, a green paw appearing on the top.

 _Wait what?_

Before he realised what was happening, his entire body had been encased in form-fitting leather, a domino mask had been pressed onto his face and an entirely too long belt hung from his hips.

A strange pressure on his head caused him to bring a hand up to his hair and- _were those cat ears?_

There was a heaviness on his lower back. Adrien reached around and clutched onto a long metal… thing, before bringing it around so he could see it.

He turned it over in his hands. It really was just a metal pole, nothing remotely conspicuous or noteworthy- oh wait, it has a green paw on it as well.

' _Put that away you idiot!'_ Vaguely-Cat-Shaped's voice sounded, ' _and get out there! She'll have finished before we even get here at this rate!'_

She? Who was _she?_ The girl who was walking on air and turning flies into dragons?

Adrien shook his head and ran back around the corner, deciding that today was just one of the days where you go with the flow.

If the flow wanted him to go and find the strange horned girl, so be it.

"What do I do know?" he asked, staring up at her cluelessly.

' _Get her out of the air for a start.'_

"Wow, thanks. Thank you for that. Everything is so much clearer now. I know exactly what I must do now."

' _Shush. See the ring?'_

Adrien looked down at the ring. Slightly startled to see that it was still black, and the green paw mark was still present.

' _That's a miraculous.'_

Oh. _Oh._

Oh _no._

' _Yeah. Got a plan yet?_ _'_

He had one. It was pretty dumb and only spanned about two steps, but he would just have to go for it.

"Hey!" he yelled up at her, "you want the miraculous? Come and get it!"

She perked up, and a glowing pink outline appeared around her face. Her scowl deepened and she dove at him.

Step 1 - Get her attention.

Step 2 - Run the hell away.

It was good in theory, but somewhere between thinking it and making his legs move, the signal got jammed. He was frozen, stuck staring at the girl as she came closer and closer towards him.

Closer and closer and closer and closer…

She was not even ten centimetres away when he jumped. Adrien jumped higher than he ever had before, and the girl went straight under him.

She turned and glared at him, as if to say _how dare you._

The pink outline appeared again, and Adrien felt a shiver of dread run down his spine.

The horned girl opened her mouth to say something - which Adrien was sure was going to be very threatening and/or an angry villain rant - but she was cut off by a red-and-black yo-yo wrapping around her staff and pulling it out of her grip.

Adrien followed the string until he saw another girl wearing a similarly pattered one piece, her black hair tied up into pigtails and a similar domino mask hiding her cheekbones.

"It worked!" she gasped, staring at the yo-yo and sceptre - one in each hand - with awe.

 _Cute_ _…_ _huh?_ Adrien shook his head, freeing his mind from the passing thought.

Her excitement was short-lived however, as the dragon came up behind her and snatched the wooden staff away, depositing it back in the hands of the horned girl.

"Fools! You think it would be that easy to take The Creator's magical sceptre?" she cackled, and thrust her hand out towards them.

Adrien sighed. Now he had _two_ people to worry about.

' _No you idiot! She's on your side!'_

He glanced at the girl in the spotted jumpsuit as both the dragon and the winged dog came towards them, attacking intent radiating off them in waves.

"You get the dragon, I'll get the dog?" she proposed, staring straight ahead determinedly.

Adrien smirked. Something about this situation lit a fire in his bones and he felt like he could take on the world.

Or, in this case, a dragon.

It was about the size of a possum, but its plated head looked like it would _hurt_ if it ran into him at the speed it was going.

Again, the muscles in his legs tensed - as if it was instinctual - and he leapt into the air.

' _Use Cataclysm and trap it under the rubble of the wall.'_

"Cataclysm?" he repeated in confusion, and his hands tingled like he had cut off the circulation.

' _Place your hand on the wall of the old building.'_

Without questioning what good that would do - mainly because there was a dragon coming at him at speeds he would rather not become closely acquainted with - Adrien did as Vaguely-Cat-Shaped's voice instructed.

To his surprise, the wall instantly crumbled. Startled, he jumped out of the way before it trapped him, but the dragon wasn't so lucky.

The ring beeped and a green claw disappeared.

 _What? Maybe I can only use that a certain amount of times? Maybe I have three other completely different moves?_

"Nice one, Chat Noir!" the girl trying to trap the large dog exclaimed.

"Chat Noir?" he repeated in confusion.

She stopped in her tracks. "That _is_ your name, isn't it?" she asked, her tone cringing slightly like she was worried she had just made a massive fool of herself.

' _It is.'_

"Ye- um, yes that's my name."

She smiled at him and jumped off the bolting animal, locking it inside the gym. Adrien wondered if she had done this before, because she made everything look so effortless, like she knew exactly what she was doing.

' _Her's is Ladybug.'_

"You're.. Ladybug?" he tried.

She looked like she was about to shake her head before she changed her mind and nodded. "Yep," she told him.

 _Ladybug_ and _Chat Noir_ sounded about as intimidating as _Hawkmoth._ The Creator wasn't much better either. Very _Frankenstein._

Speaking of the horned girl-

"You may have cadged my creatures but let's see you take on _me!"_ she cried, a smirk playing at her lips.

Ladybug got into a defensive stance, and he followed suit. Adrien glanced at her as he eyes widened - in confusion or revelation, he had no idea - and she reeled in the string of her yo-yo.

Before throwing it straight up in the air.

Okay, _now_ he was confused.

"Lucky Charm!" she yelled, and the yo-yo fell back into her hands as a black-and-red tennis ball.

" _That's_ your power? You can turn things into balls?" Adrien asked the masked girl dubiously.

Ladybug shrugged helplessly. "I didn't know what it would do!" she exclaimed, before narrowing her eyes.

"What? What is it?"

"Keep her distracted, I have an idea," she told him, before turning and running away.

 _Great,_ Adrien thought bitterly, _the only help I had turns tail and now I'm stuck facing her by myself. Thanks, Ladybug._

Rolling his eyes, Adrien straightened his posture. "Cataclysm!" he yelled.

But nothing happened. No tinging in his hands, no feeling of power rushing through him.

The Creator's eyes widened at the exclamation, before smirking at him and readying her sceptre.

"What? What's wrong with it?" he panicked, shaking his hand up and down.

' _It only works once you idiot.'_

A claw on his ring flashed and vanished.

' _That's your time limit.'_

"It would have been nice to know that _before_ I tried it!"

Adrien didn't understand _anything._ Reflexes spiking, the leather-clad boy ducked, gnarled staff swishing through the place his head had been not a second before.

"Keep still!" The Creator thundered.

"Hmm… how about no," he quipped back sarcastically, dodging another well-aimed blow.

"Hey, _Creator!_ _"_ a voice sounded from behind them, "catch!"

A familiar red-and-black ball hurled towards the horned girl, who caught it subconsciously.

Adrien turned around to see Ladybug - so she _hadn_ _'_ _t_ abandoned him! - standing behind them, two fingers to her lips. She let out a shrill whistle, and he covered his ears t protect them from the high-pitched noise.

 _Thump. Thump. Thump._

The abnormally large hound bounded up to The Creator and tackled her, mouth reaching for the small tennis ball.

Adrien couldn't help it - he laughed. The once-threatening girl was flustered and covered in animal saliva, her thin arms stretching out in front of her in a futile attempt to shove the beast off her.

Once again, Ladybug's yo-yo wrapped around the sceptre and tugged it out of The Creator's lax grip. she stood stock-still, staring at the length of wood in her hands like she didn't know what to do with it.

Then, without warning, she raised her arms and broke it over her knee, sending splinters flying.

 _How strong is she?_ Adrien thought to himself, taken aback, _that thing's like, solid wood!_

A black butterfly fluttered out of the jagged edge, and Ladybug traced a line down her yo-yo and… captured it? What was this, Pokemon?

Without a word from either of them, the butterfly flew back out, its wings now pure white.

The Creator bubbled black and purple, and they both got into defensive stances, ready for a second attack.

But it never came.

Instead, the green dress and horns faded to an ordinary girl. She was wearing a brown coat, a purple top and jeans. Nothing about her features were particularly striking or irregular - _especially_ the lack of horns.

The Not-Creator sat up and rubbed her head in confusion. "What happened? Who are you?" She asked the two of them, and Adrien was suddenly acutely aware of how stupid he probably looked.

They shared a glance and shrugged, not knowing what else to do. Silence fell between them as the perfectly ordinary girl gave them a weird look, put a hand to her forehead like she had a headache and ran off.

"You want me to say _what?_ _"_ Ladybug suddenly burst, and Adrien took a step back in surprise.

 _She must have a vaguely-cat-shaped thing as well._

' _Hey! My name's Plagg! And I'm nothing_ like _a cat - I'm a kwami!'_

Adrien shrugged, the adrenalin running out of his veins and leaving him quite tired. He looked over to Ladybug, who- was she _blushing?_

A claw on his ring beeped, and disappeared.

"M-Mysterious Cleansing Light," she stammered, and Adrien probably would have laughed at the strange utterance if he wasn't sure he had said some stranger things.

Ladybug threw the tennis ball up in the air and it vanished in a burst of pink light, so bright he almost had to look away. The light spread to where he had collapsed the wall and when it passed the red bricks looked as though they had never been touched. Next, it surrounded the winged dog - who was staring at where the light had burst in the air - and the dragon, transforming them back into their original forms.

Ladybug looked around in awe, then she turned to him and smiled happily.

Something beeped, but it wasn't his ring - it was her ear pieces. So they worked the same as his did as well. Go figure.

' _You better get out of here - people will start to wonder where you've been.'_

Those were the words that brought Adrien back to reality. "I gotta go," he told Ladybug - who nodded - and sprinted off, back around the corner.

"Now what do I do?" he asked aloud.

' _Say transformation: release!'_

He did as the Kwami instructed and suddenly he was Adrien again, in his normal clothes and he brought a hand up to his head - yep, no cat ears.

Adrien trailed back to class, trying to comprehend exactly what he had just done. What _had_ he just done?

"You stopped Hawkmoth from getting the miraculous," Plagg supplied, guessing what he was thinking.

"Is it gonna happen again?" he asked, not sure what he wanted the answer to be.

"Oh yes."

—

 **Ugh. This took SO LONG. (Not really, like a day)**

 **Also, I wrote it with the idea that I would make a part 2 with Marinette's POV as well - would anyone be interested in that?**

 **Please tell me what you thought, any mistakes or any prompts you want to send my way!**

 **As Always,**

 **Thornsword.**


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